May 7, 2008

As far as I'm concerned, navel-gazing is the mortal sin of blogging. Having the ego to imagine that anyone else would care what we think about baseball, movies, local politics or footwear is one thing. Expecting anyone else to give a rat's ass what we think about ourselves, though, is a whole other level of self-absorbtion. That said, every once in a while something comes along and makes us take stock of our situation. Chris Needham did what the United States Supreme Court has steadfastly refused to do; he put an end to Capitol Punishment.

Chris was already an established voice in the nascent Nat(m)osphere when NTP was unleashed upon teh unsuspecting interwebs in early July 2005. Our blog was born of the desire to have a place for three idiots to spout off on the amazin', unheralded 2005 Washington Nationals. Of course, not long after, that team dissolved into the 31-50 in the second half Nationals. Totally not our fault though. We kept on going to games, drinking beers and heckling Pat Burrell like it was a paying job. In between, we blogged. Sometimes sporadically, sometimes half-heartedly, but we blogged.

Along the way many other, better Nats bloggers closed up shop. By my count, we've outlasted The Nats Blog, Nasty Nats, Distinguished Senators and the original (and much better) incarnations of Federal Baseball and The Curly W, to name but a few. Life, it seems, is what happens to you while you're blogging, and time is no respector of great baseball fan/writers. Still, I never expected to be writing a post the day after Capitol Punishment shut it down.

We've not been immune to the evolution of the Natmosphere. When a thousand flowers bloom inevitably some of them are going to start looking alike. And when your team (struggles/is rebuilding/just flat sucks) it can be even harder to find a fresh and interesting way to express that sentiment. In contemplating Cap Pun's retirement from the hurly-burly, I'm mostly just thankful that we're still here.

Four years on, despite relocations, job changes and the ebb and flow of daily life in the DC Metro the three of us still find time to go to games, drink beers and heckle Pat Burrell like it's a paying job. And in between, we blog. We are older, but no wiser. No less certain of the theological correctness of GUZMANIA! and still in awe of the curative powers of a $6.50 Miller Lite draft and a half smoke on a late spring evening. We few, we happy few, we band of bloggers.